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Cosby can’t make his case outside courtroom

Wichita
Published 1:21 p.m. CT May 22, 2017

FILE - In this Dec. 13, 2016, file photo, Bill Cosby departs after a pretrial hearing in his sexual assault case at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa. Cosby’s lawyers hope to prescreen potential jurors to weed out those with opinions about the sex-assault case before jury selection begins in earnest. A defense motion filed Monday, March 20, 2017, says the “inflammatory” worldwide coverage of the case makes it likely that some potential jurors have opinions about the actor’s guilt or innocence.(Photo: Matt Rourke, ASSOCIATED PRESS)

The following editorial appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Saturday, May 20:

Jury selection was scheduled to get underway Monday at the Allegheny County Courthouse for the sexual assault trial that actor Bill Cosby will face in Montgomery County next month. Because of pretrial publicity, a judge ordered a jury be selected in Pittsburgh and sequestered for the trial in suburban Philadelphia.

Cosby disclosed in a SiriusXM radio interview Tuesday that he would not testify in his defense. That is his right. Yet it was poor form for Cosby to break his silence of nearly two years and do a radio interview in which he supported his daughter’s assertion that racism is behind the allegations that scores of women have leveled against him. He also suggested that other malevolent factors could be at play.

He will stand trial on charges of drugging and assaulting Andrea Constand, a former employee of Temple University, in 2004. She is one of more than 50 women to have come forward in recent years with allegations of sexual assault by Cosby, a portrait starkly at odds with the actor’s longtime image as America’s Dad.

In a statement played on the radio show, his daughter, Ensa Cosby, said that “racism has played a big role in all aspects of the scandal.” Asked about that, Cosby said, “Could be, could be.”

While certain media depictions of this case have carried racial overtones, leveraging racism as defense against a sexual assault allegation simply does not follow. When radio host Michael Smerconish noted that some of his accusers were black and others white, Cosby said, “Well, let me put it to you this way. When you look at the power structure and when you look at individuals, there are some people who can very well be motivated by whether or not they’re going to work. Or whether or not they might be able to get back at someone. … ”

Cosby has had his say in the court of public opinion. More revealing will be what occurs in a court of law.

Tribune Media Services

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